INDIANAPOLIS – A bill that would repeal a requirement that a local floodplain administrator use the “best floodplain mapping data available” – as provided by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) – when reviewing an application for a permit to authorize construction in or near a floodplain recently reached the floor of the Indiana Senate.

Senate Bill 242 would also require an owner to disclose on a real estate disclosure form whether any portion of the real estate is located in a floodplain, as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Map or a FEMA-approved local floodplain map. The legislation is co-authored by Sens. Jean Leising (R-42nd district) and Chris Garten (R-45th district).

During the bill’s second reading in the Senate chamber on Jan. 26, three proposed amendments were defeated. After the amendments were defeated, the measure moved through the second reading. A date for a third reading had not been set at press time. If passed by the Senate during the third reading, the bill will move to the House of Representatives.

Last year, Leising authored a bill creating a task force to examine drainage issues in the state. The group is responsible for reviewing drainage laws, making determinations and recommendations concerning drainage and regulatory matters, and determining whether the balance between state and local authority over agricultural drainage land favors state authority more in Indiana than in neighboring states, according to the senator. The task force had two meetings last year and plans three more this year. The bill requires the committee to report to Gov. Eric Holcomb and legislators by Dec. 1, 2023.

Leising said testimony she heard during a task force meeting in December 2022 prompted her to sponsor the current legislation. David Knipe, director of IDNR’s Division of Water, told the group the FEMA map depicts the regulatory floodplain, which he described as the 1 percent annual chance flood (100-year flood) and the 0.2 percent chance flood (500-year flood) and the floodway. The FEMA map doesn’t reach everywhere the state would like it to reach, Knipe noted, so IDNR created the Best Available Floodplain Layer (BAFL).

The BAFL has more comprehensive coverage of flood zones than the federal map, he said. To develop the BAFL, 18,500 miles of streams were studied and floodway limits determined, providing a regulatory certainty, Knipe said. The process was completed in 2018.

Leising told Farm World the IDNR had been using the maps since 2019 without them being in statute. In 2022, the agency put the floodplain maps into statute as a part of an agency bill, she said. Leising said she and senators she spoke with were unaware the language was included in that legislation.

“Nobody talked about it in the Senate,” she explained. “To be honest, I got my nose twisted when I heard we had voted to put maps into statute but we didn’t know we had. Who am I worried about? I’m worried about the devaluation of property without people even knowing it was devalued. I felt like we needed to put out to DNR that’s not the way we do business. It should have been clearly indicated by DNR that a change had been made.”

If her current legislation becomes law, the IDNR maps won’t be mandated when a property owner seeks a permit but they will still be available for use, Leising said.

During a Senate Natural Resources Committee hearing about SB 242 on Jan. 19, Caitlin Smith, IDNR legislative and public policy director, said the agency is neutral on the bill.

“The provision (passed in legislation in 2022) codifies what local floodplain administrators should be following as required by federal code and their own local ordinance in state statute,” she explained. “In conversations we had with members last year, we believed this language was proactively helping to clear up any confusion around the best available floodplain data showcased in the maps rolled out in 2018.”

Indiana’s map is more restrictive than the FEMA map, but that leads to a cost savings for communities that purchase flood insurance, Smith said.

Jeff Cummins, Indiana Farm Bureau’s director of state government relations, said the organization was also neutral on the bill.

“My members deal with (drainage concerns) day in and day out,” he explained. “It’s a problem. We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to finding the right balancing point with the regulations in place and the need to manage water on the farm.”

A representative of the White River Alliance spoke against the bill during the hearing. A representative of the Indiana Builders Association said his organization supports the legislation.